Mori started her career in 1992 as a fashion model at the age of 14, later she became an actress when she co-starred in 1997 on the smash TV-hit Mirada De Mujer with TV Azteca; then, she starred in the soap opera Azul Tequila. Her big break came in 2004, with the telenovela Rubí (a remake of the 1968 series) by rival network Televisa, in which she played the main character. She also has starred in several self-produced films and music videos.

Mori was born on 2 February 1978. She is of Uruguayan-Mexican-Japanese heritage.[1][2] She has two siblings, actress Kenya Mori and Kintaró Mori. Her parents, Japanese-Uruguayan Yuyi Mori and Mexican Rosario Ochoa, divorced when she was three years of age. Mori spent her early childhood between Mexico and Uruguay and finally settled in Mexico City at the age of twelve.[3]

One day, while working as a waitress at the age of fourteen, fashion designer Marcos Toledo invited her to work as a model. She became independent by the age of seventeen and went to live with her cousins.[4] At nineteen she met actor Sergio Mayer, who would later become father to their son Sergio, born in 1998.[5] They never married.

In 1998, Bárbara Mori got her first leading role as "Azul" in the series Azul Tequila, co-starring with Mauricio Ochmann. A year later she filmed the series Me muero por tí in Miami, with Peruvian actor Christian Meier. Later, she acted in various other telenovelas, including the Telemundo telenovela Amor descarado.

In 2001, she got her first film role in the romantic comedy Inspiración, the film was a box-office success in cinemas.

In 2002, she playing the villain role as a seductive college student in the telenovela Subete A Mi Moto opposite Vanessa Acosta.

In 2004, she signs with Televisa and starred as Rubí, a smash TV-hit and highly–rated Mexican soap opera, of the same name, which earned her another TVyNovelas Award.

In 2005 she obtained the starring role in the blockbuster film La mujer de mi hermano as Zoe, and her husband was portrayed by Christian Meier, with whom she had previously co-starred in Me muero por tí. At the same year she lent her voice in the Spanish-language version for the movie Robots.

In 2009, she starred in the psychological crime thriller Amor, Dolor y Viceversa alongside Leonardo Sbaraglia, the drama is about a female architect who is obsessed with a promising surgeon, who allegedly saw in her nightmares. The crime-drama was filmed in Mexico city and was produced by Mori herself. The film earned mixed reviews from critics and viewers.[6][7]

In 2011, she got the main role in the action-drama "Viento En Contra", alongside actors Héctor Arredondo and Fernando Luján, in which she played a successful and promising CIO, who is unjustly involved in a police chase due to a scandal of a financial fraud. The film was distributed by Warner Bros and received mixed reviews by critics. The drama was filmed on locations of Mexico city and Valle de Bravo. Mori was the producer of the film.[8]